International Paper on Thursday released its annual sustainability report for 2022, touting its “planet-friendly packaging” and progress on ESG goals.

Overall, the company strives to use resources efficiently and responsibly while ensuring a sustainable business, CEO Mark Sutton said in the report. In 2022, International Paper began progressing toward meeting its Vision 2030 goals, which IP announced three years ago, according to the report. In addition, the 125-year-old company’s rebranding effort that launched earlier this year put sustainability at the forefront.

The Vision 2030 goals contain targets for accelerating sustainability, such as reducing water use by 25% by 2030. Another key goal is to reduce Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions by 35% by 2030, a target that the Science Based Targets initiative approved in 2021. 

Emissions

According to the report, IP reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 20% between 2010 and 2022 and halved its use of coal and fuel oil. Strategies for continued decarbonization include further reducing energy consumption, generating its own renewable energy via manufacturing-derived biomass production and exploring new and emerging technologies for decarbonization. IP also intends to focus on supplier and customer engagement in 2023 and 2024 to reduce GHGs along the value chain and identify possible gaps.

Despite the progress, the report notes that 2022 brought “significant challenges” for IP’s operational decarbonization across its facilities. Progress with reducing Scope 1 emissions at several plants was offset by increased fossil fuel use at others due to reduced biomass fuel production. While Scope 2 emissions experienced reductions associated with grid greening and the sale of renewable energy certificates, that doesn’t result in an actual change in emissions, the report said. IP eventually plans to discontinue REC sales.

Water

The report says IP treats 88% of the water used in its manufacturing and returns it to the environment. Water consumption especially is a focus in areas suffering from water scarcity, such as IP’s mill in Madrid; the company reduced water use there and has discussed targeting 100% recycled water use, according to the sustainability report. 

Although several mills reduced their water consumption, the report said that “in 2022, we did not make significant progress against our enterprise goal of reducing water usage by 25%.” A main reason is lower production resulting from pandemic-related supply chain disruptions, which influences water conservation metrics.

IP’s water use intensity had dropped in 2020 and 2021, but it returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2022. As a result of the numerous water conservation challenges, IP began a process last year to re-evaluate and improve water stewardship processes and governance. The company plans to improve its water risk assessment process to identify and mitigate risks like water scarcity and pollution.

Recycling

In the industrial packaging sector, IP aims to make all packaging and containerboard products 100% recyclable. As of 2022, 93.5% of corrugated packaging was recyclable. IP also swapped out the polystyrene foam for e-commerce shipments with 100% recycled molded fiber interior packaging.

Diversity

Progress on other ESG goals includes increasing the diversity of IP’s workforce to achieve the Vision 2030 goals of 30% overall representation of women in the workforce, 50% representation of women in salaried positions and 30% representation of minorities in U.S.-based salaried positions. In 2022, the company had achieved, respectively, 17.9%, 34.5% and 24.2%.